1995 Nascar Grand Prix

[MarkJ]

If any of you have built the Monogram Nascar Kenny Wallace kit you might have noticed that the nose is way too short and the rear bumper area on the real car was more squared off and slab side at the rear bumper then the model. I'm trying to make my 1995 Ward Burton car look a little more like the real car he drove. Below is what I have so far. I used a scale picture of the 1995 Petty car as a guide.

[MojaveRacer208]

If any of you have built the Monogram Nascar Kenny Wallace kit you might have noticed that the nose is way too short and the rear bumper area on the real car was more squared off and slab side at the rear bumper then the model. I'm trying to make my 1995 Ward Burton car look a little more like the real car he drove. Below is what I have so far. I used a scale picture of the 1995 Petty car as a guide.

Mark,

It appears that you are doing nice work there, but I think you are a little misled by trying to scale from a photo. This is always a difficult thing to do accurately because of the way a camera "sees". There is a little distortion inherent in a camera's view of the world. This was pointed out to me long ago by someone who understands the optics much better than I. It is related to gathering a large image into the small lens as if there is a triangle with the point at the lens and the wide end at the object...say the front and rear corners of the car, in this case. The distance from the lens to the center of the car is not the same distance as to the ends of the car, and the viewing angle is also not the same. Also, the photo you are using is not taken from directly square to the side of the axis of the car, but angled around the front some. Note that the rear face of the car is not at all visible, while the front is visible nearly all the way across. This makes the nose appear MUCH longer, while having very little effect on the rear length. I agree that the 95 bodies had become more slab sided than the 89 versions the model represents (regardless of year of specific kit release or decal set, the model bodies were not completely updated and re-tooled to keep up with the race cars). But I think you will find through examining a LOT of photos from various angles of the 95 cars, that the kit was still pretty close on length. What you are sculpting there looks more like a COT nose than a 95 Pontiac race car.

[MarkJ]

Mojave,I only used the photo as a rough guide to get the right length on the nose . I know the picture is not perfectly square but I made allowances for that . I have many pictures of the car I am building from many angles that I'm using for reference and I'm pretty happy with the what I've come up with. Believe me the Kenny Wallace kit that is suppose to be the donor kit for a 95 Grand Prix has a nose that is way too short compared to the actual 95 car that was raced in the cup series that year. I beg to differ with you on a COT car. It has a very short nose compared to the car I am modeling and the splitter on a COT car looks nothing like it at all.

[MarkJ]

I'm going to prime the body today. Here are some pre-primer shots.

Here is the car I'm trying to build

[MarkJ]

Ready to be polished.